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"We protested that," said V/C coach Bob McNamara. "They then invited us to their November meeting and tabled the motion, allowing us stay in the league if we are not accepted by the Pequot. But the fact is they tried to throw us out of the league. We’ve been an excellent member of the league. We’ve never canceled a freshman, junior varsity or varsity game.
"We also did things for the league that maybe weren’t in the best interests of our program. We agreed to play Plainville on Thanksgiving and we did for two years. Then when they decided they didn’t want to play us anymore, we agreed to play Rocky Hill on Thanksgiving.
"We also agreed -- for the good of the league -- to play Northwest Catholic for our one non-league game, a team that has been to the playoffs two years in a row. This is the thanks we got."
Northwest and Rocky Hill were both playoff teams this year. They combined for a 19-1 record before losing in the first round of the playoffs to New London and Hyde Leadership of New Haven respectively.
Henry P. Koritkoski, the Director of Athletics at Middletown High, said that the reason for the removal of Vinal/Coginchaug was because V/C just plays football and does not compete in other league sports. "They were the logical team to go," he said.
However, Enfield High, like V/C, plays just football. Enfield remains a member of the Nutmeg Football league.
"I think V/C will be better off in the Pequot/Shoreline Conference," said Koritkoski. "It just makes more sense for us to have a 10-team league. Then every team can play everybody in the league and there will be no byes. With 11 teams, there would be a bye every week. It’s very difficult to find a non-league opponent for the middle of the season."
McNamara said one of the reasons for joining the Nutmeg League was to guarantee playing Middletown High every year. Others sources indicated that another reason for preferring the Nutmeg over the Pequot was that the Nutmeg had three levels of play, freshman, junior varsity and varsity while the Pequot does not.
So does this mean the end of the Middletown vs. Vinal/Coginchaug series?
Koritkoski conceded it would be impossible for his school to play V/C because of the commitment to the nine league games plus Xavier. With Avon and V/C off the schedule, MHS is slated to pick up Northwest Catholic and East Catholic next fall.
Koritkoski, however, did not close the door to a game sometime in the future.
"We are looking into entertaining a football relationship with Vinal/Coginchaug," said Koritkoski, who chose his words carefully. "If that were to happen, then we would entertain the idea of not playing Xavier. But we are not entertaining that idea right now; we are playing Xavier.
"Maybe in years we’re allowed to play 11 games, we’ll play both of them."
